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Billboards
18 September 2009 11:13The ban on billboard advertising left hundreds of billboards around the city blank and unused.
Some homeless people built really skinny shelters there in the empty frames. Just sheets of plywood on struts or some corrugated plastic to protect themselves from rain and wind. They looked like nests. Three billboard shelters went up in the first week. Many more followed. The drivers of the cars driving past these billboard homes were horrified. Where they used to see advertisements, they now saw people living a meager existence. Guilt flooded the highways.
The mayor, Marco Saldonata, did nothing to take them down. He left them up there and told police not to go near them. When pressed on the matter, he responded “The homeless problem is horrible here. Someone should really do something.” Then he stared hard at the camera.
When cross-examined later, Marco Saldonata stated that he was trying to make the point that the government is not a parent and does not have magical powers. He was trying to insinuate that the community as a whole should donate money, clothes, and housing to the poor. He said that by making the matter public and high-profile and by refusing to take action, the people would be forced to take matters into their own compassionate hands.
“It’s really too bad he didn’t say these things outright in a speech”, said assistant District Attorney Peter Dobbes in an interview six months later. “Many deaths could have been avoided.”
The billboard nests burned on July 15th, 2012. The ladders were taken away from the billboard shelters, all 22 of them, and Molotov cocktails were hurled up to them. It was a hot summer and they went up quickly. The billboards burned brightly in the night. One picture of the billboards igniting in the sunset won a Pulitzer.
Some burning figures leapt into the crowd and were killed. Most of them stayed in the burning shelters and waited for emergency response vehicles to help them. Their screams were recorded and have been played back at protests ever since.
No fire engines came to the scene. The police showed up later only to keep the crowd at a safe distance from the flames and falling debris. The fire chief, when asked about the lack of response, answered “Someone should really do something about that.” And winked to the camera.
The spectacle was a horrible chapter in the city’s history and an awful commentary on society in general. Seventeen people died in the fires. Six of them were children.
Marco Soldonata was tried for criminal negligence and sentenced to seven years in prison.
tags
Some homeless people built really skinny shelters there in the empty frames. Just sheets of plywood on struts or some corrugated plastic to protect themselves from rain and wind. They looked like nests. Three billboard shelters went up in the first week. Many more followed. The drivers of the cars driving past these billboard homes were horrified. Where they used to see advertisements, they now saw people living a meager existence. Guilt flooded the highways.
The mayor, Marco Saldonata, did nothing to take them down. He left them up there and told police not to go near them. When pressed on the matter, he responded “The homeless problem is horrible here. Someone should really do something.” Then he stared hard at the camera.
When cross-examined later, Marco Saldonata stated that he was trying to make the point that the government is not a parent and does not have magical powers. He was trying to insinuate that the community as a whole should donate money, clothes, and housing to the poor. He said that by making the matter public and high-profile and by refusing to take action, the people would be forced to take matters into their own compassionate hands.
“It’s really too bad he didn’t say these things outright in a speech”, said assistant District Attorney Peter Dobbes in an interview six months later. “Many deaths could have been avoided.”
The billboard nests burned on July 15th, 2012. The ladders were taken away from the billboard shelters, all 22 of them, and Molotov cocktails were hurled up to them. It was a hot summer and they went up quickly. The billboards burned brightly in the night. One picture of the billboards igniting in the sunset won a Pulitzer.
Some burning figures leapt into the crowd and were killed. Most of them stayed in the burning shelters and waited for emergency response vehicles to help them. Their screams were recorded and have been played back at protests ever since.
No fire engines came to the scene. The police showed up later only to keep the crowd at a safe distance from the flames and falling debris. The fire chief, when asked about the lack of response, answered “Someone should really do something about that.” And winked to the camera.
The spectacle was a horrible chapter in the city’s history and an awful commentary on society in general. Seventeen people died in the fires. Six of them were children.
Marco Soldonata was tried for criminal negligence and sentenced to seven years in prison.
tags